Saturday, September 19, 2015

UK Vacay: Nottingham

I must admit, I didn't know a whole lot about Robin Hood, but since he's one of the world's most famous outlaws, his old stomping grounds made our list of "must see while in England." To prepare the boys, the only thing I did was to borrow the Disney animated version of the story from a friend. We watched it a few times before we left for our trip. It was a long drive from Edinburgh, so when we got to our hotel that night, we had dinner at the pub across the parking lot, a Fayre and Squayre. It is a chain restaurant affiliated with the hotel, and I can't say I was all too impressed with the service, but the place was BIG and FULL. This is where I had my first "Bangers and Mash." What's not to love about sausage, mashed potatoes, and green peas? It was good! The next morning, we hopped on the bus and took it down to the Town Centre. The only two things I had planned for the day were to visit the Nottingham Castle grounds and spend some time at the Market square, where a temporary BEACH had been set up for a 7-week summer attraction. Thankfully, it was sunny enough to enjoy it, and we had a blast wandering around listening to Steel Drum music smack dab in the center of England's shore-deprived Nottinghamshire.We then made our way to the castle grounds. The original castle (built in 1067 by William the Conqueror) has been gone over 400 years! The palace that is there now has had it's own exciting history, and was most recently renovated into it's current state as an art and history museum in the late 1800's. The highlight of the day was being able to take a Cave Tour (more like tunnels) guided by Robin Hood.After we said goodbye to Robin, we had to have a snack at England's oldest pub, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, where it's said crusaders would stop on their way to the Holy Land. We snapped a few pics of some of the fabled cursed (or lucky) sights... a model ship that dare not be dusted off (three people who cleaned it died unexpectedly shortly after doing so), and there are claims that if you sit in the "Pregnancy Chair" you'll soon have a baby of your own. Here are some pics!